Security footage seals bouncers' guilt, says prosecution

Andrea Petrie

Security footage of the incident which led to a patron's death after he was thrown to the ground by Crown Casino bouncers last year was enough to satisfy the jury that the security officers' actions were "criminal", a court has heard.

In the prosecution's closing address, which began at Victoria's Supreme Court on Friday, Andrew Tinney, SC, urged the jury to rely on their own viewing of the CCTV vision of what happened.

Anthony William Dunning, 40, died four days after he was thrown to the floor and restrained for more than four minutes while being ejected by security following a day of drinking on July 3, 2011.

Bouncers Matthew Scott Lawson, 27, and Cameron Paul Sanderson, 40, have both pleaded not guilty to his manslaughter.

"The reality is that your own eyes will be the most powerful tool in understanding what occurred in those tragic few minutes," Mr Tinney said.

"The behaviour of the three men in the dock can be clearly seen for what it is: entirely unnecessary, entirely unreasonable and criminal."

He urged the jury to consider the evidence of another bouncer who was present when Mr Dunning was brought down, Christian Luta, who denied hearing any threats or abuse from the patron.

Mr Luta had also not seen Mr Dunning struggling while he was being held down.

"In respect of the suggested physical intimidation or physically threatening behaviour of Mr Dunning, where is that on the footage? Look at that footage and see whether you can see Mr Dunning being physically intimidating, aggro, confronting in the way he is behaving," Mr Tinney said.

"You see a man, perhaps a slightly drunk man, who doesn’t agree with the decision made to expel him from the casino and he argues his case, forcefully at times, but where is the aggro? Where are the threatening gestures? None.

"If anyone was being up front aggressive it is more likely on the appearances of the footage to be the accused Lawson.

"The prosecution would suggest that when you carefully assess the CCTV footage, when you weigh up all of the sworn evidence, and the other versions given as to the events so clearly depicted in the footage, you should be moved to the conclusion that the answer to the first question I posed, that is, did Anthony Dunning become verbally and physically aggressive, threatening and intimidating towards the security staff during their attempts to have him leave the casino, is a pretty resounding no, he did not."

"The appearance of Anthony Dunning ... is of a man who is helpless, not fighting, not struggling, not resisting and you might think from a relatively early time, probably not even conscious," he said.

"The decision made by the accused to put into effect the shut-down position, which was done on the accused Sanderson's own admission with his involvement as well, was just completely uncalled for, not a valid thing to do at all. It was a complete overreaction.

"It served to inflame a situation, it served to immediately expose Anthony Dunning to a real risk of sustaining serious injury."

He added that although Mr Dunning weighed 146 kilograms and had an enlarged and diseased heart, he was not sick or giving any indication that he was that he was about to experience a "severe medical emergency" before he was "violently slammed into the ground".